The Christmas Pageant
by Lady Emma Wentworth
Summary: Remember the joys and the nerves of seeing your kids in their first Christmas school pageant? Miss Beeb remembers.


**The Christmas Pageant**

Jack glanced at the man seated next to him on the rather hard and uncomfortable metal folding chair. He'd caught Jack's notice earlier when he'd emerged from behind the men's room door into the school's foyer. The young man was about six feet tall, with dark, slightly wavy hair cut above his collar, a cute button nose and Cupid's bow lips. But it was his eyes that had gripped Jack's attention when they'd met briefly across the lobby. Mesmerising twin orbs of piercing stormy blue-grey-green looked directly into Jack's sparkling blues and the world stood still for one… two… three beats and then started up again.

Their tenuous contact had been broken when a brash woman ran up and flung her arms around Jack's neck, dragging his head down to share a loud, smacking kiss on the lips. She had been followed by a child clearly overly-indulged judging by the very expensive clothing she wore, and who now looked around with a petulant expression on her face.

"Jack!" Without letting go, the woman drew back a few inches but spoke as though she was on the other side of the room. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"As our children both attend this school, Gwen, it was inevitable." Jack's tone was dry as he tried to free himself from her clutches without making a scene. Fortunately, Gwen's daughter was just as… undisciplined… as her mother.

"Mam! Come on!" The little girl pulled sharply at her mother's jacket. "I'm gonna be late!" Truth was, it was already nearly fifteen minutes past the appointed time for the children to meet up with their classmates backstage. When she didn't get the response she was demanding, she caught the strap of Gwen's handbag and tugged harder on that, trying to get her attention. "Mam!"

"Anwen Dylleth Williams!" Gwen abandoned Jack and turned on her daughter. "Let go of that this instant! This purse cost five hundred quid!"

In response, Anwen kicked her mother in the shin and angrily stomped away, following another mother who was quickly herding her quiet and well-behaved children toward the backstage area.

Gwen looked back and forth from Jack to her daughter, the look on her face saying that she was clearly torn between staying and working on seducing Jack versus being the parent everyone around her was waiting for her to be, and after several moments, she huffed loudly and stomped after Anwen, making it obvious where the little girl had learned _that_ behaviour.

Jack went on into the main hall and chose a seat front row centre; he wanted to be sure he could be easily seen. Around him the room began to fill, parents excited to see their children, chattering amongst themselves, getting their cameras ready to record priceless memories. To Jack's absolute joy the handsome stranger sat down in the chair to his right and immediately a lovely scent hit Jack's nose – woodsy, musky, clean and at the end, there was just the faintest hint of coffee. He inhaled deeply… and his groin shivered with delight.

Unexpected nerves fluttered in his belly as he turned his head to say hello. _'What should I say? I don't want to sound like an idiot!'_

Taking a deep breath, Jack smiled. "Hi, I'm…"

"Jack!"

' _Oh God help me!'_ Jack's silent groan was loud enough to be heard on Alpha Centauri.

Gwen non-too-gently shouldered her way past an elderly woman who was getting ready to sit down next to Jack and threw herself into the seat. "Thought I'd never find you and here you are saving me a seat! Might have known you'd get the best seats in the house, yeah? You sly dog!" She jabbed him sharply in the ribs and then tried to snuggle up against him, paying no attention when he twisted out of the way.

As the house lights dimmed and the audience grew quiet, Jack became aware of two things: one quite pleasant and one rather disturbing. First of all, on his right, the young man's leg was pressed against his, whether intentionally or accidentally Jack didn't know, but he liked it. Second, on his left, Gwen's hand was on his thigh, tickling fingers slowly moving upward; Jack knew _that_ was being done entirely on purpose and he didn't like it one little bit.

The music swelled, the curtain opened and the Christmas pageant began. Jack shifted in his seat, fortuitously knocking Gwen's hand away while turning his body towards the handsome young man. Again, he opened his mouth to speak but then the children of the first act came on stage, so adorable in their costumes, so intent on doing a good job in their given roles.

"Hi, Mam!" Anwen stage-whispered as she saw her mother and Gwen waved back.

"Hi, pet!" Gwen didn't bother to be subtle with her response.

As the performance began, a row of Christmas trees seven strong at the back of the stage began swaying in time to the music while six prettily decorated ornaments started doing a simple dance step across the middle of the state. Then the trees parted slightly and the dancers knelt, looking towards the opening. For a moment the hall held its breath waiting to see what would happen next and then…

A beautiful ballerina appeared, her sparkling white tutu stiffened out around her small body in a delicate snowflake. Rising on pointe, she pirouetted around the dancers, weaving in and out between them. As she took centre stage, the other children rose to their feet and joined in the dance.

Seeing the perfect opener for a conversation, Jack leaned in close to the man and whispered, "Which one is yours?"

"None of them…" The man turned towards Jack with wide, innocent eyes. "I'm just your friendly neighbourhood perv."

Completely nonplussed, Jack felt his jaw drop and he knew he looked a vacant fool. "I… ummmmm…!"

The man's eyes suddenly became a brilliant sparkling blue as he broke out in a naughty grin. "I have been waiting to say that since I got here!" He barely supressed a mischievous giggle.

Jack heaved a sigh of relief and returned the grin, caught by the laughter in those eyes. "Shame on you!"

"Mine is the snowflake."

Turning his attention back to the children, Jack was astounded by the sheer grace and elegance of the little girl floating around the stage; there was such an ethereal quality to her performance. "She's amazing!" he whispered.

"Takes after her mother. Emiko was Prima Ballerina with the Royal Ballet until she passed away."

Jack was taken aback for a moment, not sure what if anything to say to that, so instead he pointed to the centre tree. "That's my son, Owen."

Following Jack's finger, the young man saw the boy in question and also saw that even as he continued to sway in time to the music, Owen's gaze was fixed on the snowflake, his eyes following her around the stage unblinkingly.

"Ahhh…" he smiled, "I've heard many things about Owen. Toshiko talks about him all the time."

"Toshiko… Tosh?" Jack nodded in agreement. "She's the topic of conversation the moment he comes through the door from school."

"Yeah? It's kinda sweet, puppy love." Ianto smiled with loving pride as his child danced by them.

"He told me last night that his new year's resolution is to hold her hand at lunch." Jack smiled as he looked at his son. "Can't remember that last time I held anybody's hand." The words slipped out in a wistful, almost forlorn tone before he realised he'd voiced the thought aloud.

A hand slipped into his and squeezed for a moment and then released. "Ianto," the young man said. "Ianto Jones."

Jack's lips curled into a soft smile. "Hi, I'm Jack, nice to meet you, Ianto."

Without warning, a scuffle broke out in the tree line and one Christmas tree gave another hard shove, causing it to fall forward into a dancing ornament, which in turn crashed into another, sending the three of them into a tumbled heap on the floor.

There were gasps from the audience, and two children started to cry, but the ballerina never missed a step. As the music came to an end, she came to a graceful halt and then bowed to thunderous applause.

"MAM!" The tree which had instigated the whole debacle shrieked loudly over the sounds of clapping. "Thomas swayed into me!"

As the curtain closed and worried parents headed toward the stage, teachers could be seen rushing to help the fallen children to their feet and then the head mistress appeared between the curtain halves; her look was most foreboding. "Mrs Williams? If you could meet us backstage, please?"

Gwen took her sweet time gathering her coat and purse before standing and looking at Jack. "Tell you what, why don't we drop our little monsters off at the sitter's and go have dinner, yeah?" She gave him a look obviously intended to be alluring. "I am _dying_ for dessert, if you know what I mean."

"First of all, Gwen," Jack didn't bother to stand up. "My son is _not_ a monster in any way, shape or form." His tone was positively icy. "Secondly, Ianto and I have already made plans to take our kids out to celebrate their successful performances."

"Well, I could still dump Anwen and come with…"

"I think your evening would be better spent talking to Anwen about how _not_ to bring her class's Spring dance to such a disastrous end!"

Gwen's face turned a nasty shade of red and her mouth twisted into an ugly snarl as she gaped at Jack. Unable to find a satisfactory retort, she whirled around and stomped off toward the hall door, making her arse in its too-tight jeans purposefully sway jerkily back and forth.

"Whew! Dodged a bullet… no, a mortar round there!" Jack turned to face Ianto. "I hope you don't mind that I used you as an excuse."

"No, not at all." Ianto studied him for a brief pause. "Ex-wife?" he ventured a guess.

"Oh, sweet Jesus, no!" Jack was horrified. "Don't even send that thought out into the Universe, _please!"_

"Sorry!" Ianto couldn't help but laugh. "If you could see the look on your face right now…"

Enchanted by the sound of Ianto's laughter, Jack broke out in a happy smile. "So, are you interested in taking the kids to McDonalds to celebrate?"

Ianto sipped his coffee while peering over the edge of the Styrofoam cup at Jack. "You're an American," he observed. "So, what are you doing in Wales, of all places?"

"My grandfather was an American stationed in Scotland during WWII, married a Scottish lass." Jack glanced into the playground where Owen and Toshiko were having a game of tag on the slide. "They in turn had my mum, who married an American seconded here by the US Air Force, and they had me and then Gray a few years later." Jack dipped a large bundle of French fries in ketchup and then stuffed them into his mouth; fortunately for Ianto, he finished chewing before continuing.

"Shortly after that, my folks split up when I was seven; mum kept Gray over here because he wasn't even two at the time, dad took me when he was reassigned back to the States." Jack didn't know why he was sharing such personal information with Ianto, but there was just something about the young man that let Jack know he could trust him with anything.

"I'm sorry, Jack; that must have been difficult for you." Ianto's words were genuine.

"Dad worked hard to make life as normal for me as he could, but he was an expert in something-or-another – you know, to this day I'm still not sure what it was, but it was pretty top secret, highly classified – so being a military brat, we moved around a lot. I was in a different school just about every year, and I lived in half-a-dozen different countries before I graduated high school." Jack shrugged. "Looking back now, it was quite an adventure."

"And you're here in Cardiff now because…" Ianto gently prompted Jack back to the original question.

"Work. I'm a writer…"

"Really?!" Ianto interrupted. "Anything I might have read?"

"Don't know, do you like murder-mysteries?"

"Do I!" Ianto grinned. "It's my favourite genre! Well, that and spy novels."

"Oh yeah? Have you read any of the Chester Brumfield series?"

Ianto nodded. "Every last one of them, and most of them twice!"

"Only _most_ of them?" Jack teased him. "Why not all of them?"

"Time constraints, but I'm working on it." Set during the 1940's UK and including the war years, the Brumfield novels featured a dapper old man who wanted nothing more than to live out his remaining years in a quiet English village baking scones, drinking tea, watching birds and farming his allotment, except that he had the most uncanny knack for falling into murders. They ranked among the top five book series in Ianto's personal library.

"I based the character of Chester on an uncle my father adored. Course in real life he was an American, but it was easy to slide him in to English country life."

Ianto Jones was at a loss for words. "Ches…? You…! _You're_ Jack Harkness?!"

Jack smiled shyly; despite the acclaim his novels had gathered, he remained a private man, declining publicity and refusing to have his photograph on the dust jackets of his books. "Guilty as charged."

"Well, I'll be!" Ianto couldn't wipe the silly grin off his face. "I mean… wow! I was raised by my grandparents and I spent hours listening to their stories of life before, during and after the war. You write as if you'd lived through it all. Your words just transport me back to my gram's kitchen, and I'm just a little boy again sitting at the table peeling potatoes and apples, picturing the things she and my tad-gu would talk about." For a moment, Ianto's eyes shone with unshed tears. "Thank you for that, thank you so much."

"No, thank _you_. It makes me very happy to know that my work has touched you so deeply. I can't tell you what that means to me." Jack's words were truly heartfelt.

The two men looked into one another's eyes for several minutes, speaking no words but communicating loudly. Finally, Ianto cleared his throat. "So, you came to Cardiff because…?" he asked again.

"I came about ten years ago to do research for a book, fell in love with the country and its people and never left." Jack finished off the rest of his fries and then started in on Owen's unfinished portion after sprinkling them liberally with salt. "Plus, it was nice to reconnect with Grey and my mum, and she got to spend time with Owen before she died."

"I'm sorry." Ianto reached out and clasped Jack's hand. "I'm sure that made her very happy. Is Owen her only grandchild?"

"Yeah, Gray says that thanks to Gwen he is _never_ getting married again."

Ianto reclaimed his hand and asked the question that had been burning a hole in his mind since she'd first sat down next to Jack. "So, Gwen is…"

"Ex-sister-in-law, actually. Been years since she was married to Gray. He's a career officer in the RAF and while he was deployed in Afghanistan with Prince Harry no less, Gwen slept around, a _lot_. He divorced her, she married a really nice guy, Rhys, they had Anwen, but quite truthfully, no one's really sure Anwen is his daughter, cos Gwen cheated on him too. Now that Rhys has divorced her, the mad cow has set her sights on me." Jack shuddered at the thought.

Ianto could barely supress his grin of delight at hearing Jack's words. "So, Owen's mam is…"

"She died of cancer before he was even two days old. Mariel was my best friend; we went to Uni together in California and kept in close touch after she returned to the UK, taking it in turns to travel back and forth to visit. She never married Owen's father; he's listed as unknown on his birth certificate, but I suspect it was someone she worked with in London. She used to talk nonstop about this guy, John with cheek bones to die for, she used to say, for a while but then he transferred to Hong Kong and she never heard from him again."

"That had to be rough," Ianto sympathised.

"Mariel was a tower of strength through it all; I don't know how she did it." Jack shook his head and looked over at the playground as he heard Owen laughing. "She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer when she was five months pregnant. She refused to undergo any form of treatment that would endanger the baby, saying it could wait til he was born."

Ianto felt a great lump fill his throat. "Jack, that's awful! I am so sorry." He took Jack's hand again and held it tightly.

"I was already in Wales, doing my research and stuff, so I moved her down here with me so I could help her, take care of her, you know? She didn't have anyone else, no siblings and her parents were dead. She managed to carry Owen to term, but she was too weak to go through labour, so she had C-section. Mariel made me his legal guardian and she asked me to be his godfather but she never got to see the christening." Jack blinked back unexpected tears; he'd thought he was all cried out over his best friend's passing. "She died quietly in her sleep, holding Owen in one arm and my hand with the other."

Without letting go of Jack's hand, Ianto came around the table to sit next to him, pulling him into a warm hug. "It's all right to still be sad, Jack; it just shows how much you cared… how much you still care." Without meaning to, Ianto breathed the scent of the man he held in his arms; it was mysterious, alluring, something he couldn't quite put his finger on but which intrigued him to his bones. ' _Stop it!'_ he scolded his libido. ' _Now is not the time!'_

"Uncle Yan-san?"

Jack looked up as the tiny ballerina appeared next to them.

"Yes, Tosh?" Ianto dropped his arms but held onto Jack's hand. "What's up?"

"I need the loo!"

"You got it, Kitten." Ianto rose and took Toshiko's hand, smiling at Jack saying, "Be right back; don't you go anywhere, yeah?"

Jack's answer was a bright ear-to-ear grin. "Wouldn't dream of it." He settled back in his seat to muse on the interesting Welshman walking away from him, the man who paused for a split second to toss a glance back over his shoulder. As Ianto and Tosh disappeared into the main store, Jack knew he had a sappy grin on his face, put there by the promise in Ianto's cheeky grin.

"Is Toshi comin' back?" Owen popped up at Jack's knee and grabbed a drink off the table, sucking loudly on the straw.

"Ladies room, dude," Jack ruffled his son's hair. "Back in a mo."

"Good." Owen noisily drained the last of the drink and set the cup down but continued to play with the straw, concentrating on it. "Daddy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Tosh is pretty?"

Jack hid his smile and nodded seriously. "Yeah, she is."

"She can dance real pretty too." Little fingers chased a stray bit of French fry around the tabletop.

"I saw that, she was very graceful."

"Yeah…"

"You did a great job as a tree, you know, Owen, very Christmasy and you looked just like a real tree swaying in the wind. I liked it a lot."

A hopeful little face turned to Jack. "You did?"

"Well, yeah!" Jack pulled his son in close and hugged him. "You were great, Owen; your mum would have been very proud of you. I know she was watching you from Heaven and she was smiling so big!"

"Yeah." Owen's little body quivered with happiness; he loved knowing that his mother was keeping an eye on him all the time. "Daddy?"

"Yep?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ianto and Toshiko exiting the bathroom.

"Anwen isn't very nice, you know," Owen confided in his father. "Do you think Mummy saw Anwen push Rory?"

"Probably, but she was paying all her attention to you, little man." Jack noticed that Owen's eyes had drifted to Tosh, now halfway across the room.

"Yeah." Owen was already leaving Jack's side, heading towards the entrance to the playground where he met up with Toshiko.

Ianto was halfway sat down when Jack grabbed his arm. "Look!" he hissed.

"What?!" Ianto looked around in alarm, wondering if he was about to sit in something unpleasant. "What is it?"

"Tosh and Owen! _Look!_ He's holding her hand, Ianto!"

"What?" Ianto whirled around.

"He said _after_ the new year, but look!"

Ianto sat down and took a good look at the children; they'd separated and were busy clambering up the climbing frame, ready to slide back down. "Wow… I mean…"

Jack slid his hand across the table and snagged hold of Ianto's. "Guess it runs in the family, yeah?" They sat in happy silence for several minutes, just watching the kids run around the playground.

Jack was the first to break the silence. "You never told me what you do for a living," he cocked an eyebrow and smirked suggestively. "Male model? Exotic dancer? Male stripper? Anything that involves you taking your clothes off?"

"Huh?" Ianto blushed beet red, even the tips of his ears were bright pink. "Good grief, Jack!"

"Well, you'd be perfect for all of them," Jack argued.

Ianto stared at Jack, dumbfounded but titillated just the same. "I'm… I mean, thank you, I guess, but…"

"Well, what _do_ you do then?"

"I am Head Archivist at the Torchwood Institute; I have…"

"Ianto! That's probably the most prestigious collection in all of Great Britain, if not Europe itself!" To say that Jack was awe-struck would have been putting it mildly. "You are so young! How did you manage that? When I was there I pictured some old fuddy-duddy in Scottish tweeds and sturdy brogues, wearing thick eyeglasses and with a knobbly briar pipe stuck between his teeth!"

"Actually, that describes my great-grandfather to perfection. That's _exactly_ what he looks like in all the old pictures." Ianto laughed. "Oddly enough, the position is apparently hereditary. The Torchwood Institute was founded in 1879 in Scotland by Queen Victoria as a repository for many of Prince Albert's personal papers and effects as well as rare, valuable and highly confidential documents of the Crown. Great-granddad was appointed the first curator in 1883, at age 49, when the Institute was moved to a more secretive location Cardiff. He passed away at 103, an unheard-of achievement for the time, having retired at one hundred and my tad-gu took over from him – that was in 1934, when he was 42 and he held the post for 45 years til he passed away at 87.

"My tad stepped into his shoes and when he got married again, they decided to travel the world, so he retired, and the position became mine. I was already working there, had been since I was twenty-one. I've spent the last five years reorganising their historical archives, getting them digitally photographed and recorded, and in April I will begin preparing an exhibit that will travel around Great Britain's libraries and museums."

Jack stared at him for a moment. "I spent God knows how many hours there, doing research for 'Chester and the Poison Mulberry Wine' and a couple of others! I never saw you!"

"No, you wouldn't have. The sections I've been working in aren't open to the general public. We allow some scholarly visits, but not very often."

"What became of Tosh's mum? If you don't mind me asking, I mean…"

"No, it's all right. We weren't together." Ianto smiled reassuringly. "My big sister, Rhiannon, was her partner. They were together for about ten years and decided they wanted a family, so they used an anonymous sperm donor and Emiko gave us Toshiko. Emiko means beautiful blessing child in Japanese, and Toshiko means brilliant child or gifted child."

"She certainly lives up to that," Jack murmured, still thoroughly taken with the pure, natural talent Tosh had displayed earlier that evening during the Christmas pageant.

"Not only her dancing, Jack, but she is already showing an _amazing_ talent for computers and programming. I mean, she's only six but she's really smart in an I-could-take-over-the-world-before-I-hit-puberty kinda way. I'm telling you, it's scary!"

"That's great! Well, maybe not the evil scientist part. Owen wants to be a chef, a fireman, a policeman, an astronaut, a prince, an actor, a million… no, I tell a lie… this morning it changed to a billionaire, a farmer and a…" Jack thought for a second, mentally running down the list of occupations Owen wanted to pursue. "Oh yeah! A race car driver."

Ianto laughed merrily. "He's going to be one very busy young man!"

"Gotta admire his determination, that's for sure!" Jack laughed as well.

Ianto got back on topic; he really wanted Jack to know Toshiko's story. "Anyway, when Tosh was about eighteen months old, Rhi and Emiko decided it was time to get married, so they held a civil partnership ceremony. It was really beautiful, and Tosh looked so lovely in her little gown," Ianto smiled with pride, "like a wee princess she was."

The men looked over at the playground as shrieks of laughter rang out; apparently, Tosh and Owen were playing tag now, running around avoiding each other. It didn't seem to matter who was IT, the game was just a free-for-all of fun.

"Tosh doesn't remember her mams, although we have pictures of them on the mantelpiece and I tell her stories about them." Ianto sighed. "The girls had hired a car to take them from the reception to the Savoy where they were going to spend their wedding night before departing for Bali the next day, ten days of roasting and toasting in the sun, they called it. The car's driver ran a red light and drove right into the path of an articulated lorry going at full speed."

Jack took his hand, cradling it in his own as he waited for Ianto continue.

Ianto squeezed Jack's hand and smiled gratefully. "The truck impacted the rear half of the car, actually breaking the frame in half and pushing it forward into the corner of a stone building; there was so much momentum built up the trucker never stood a chance of stopping. The coroner said they died instantly."

"Ianto, I am so sorry!" Jack was horrified, the images running through his mind were ghastly.

"Thank you, Jack." Ianto hadn't spoken of the accident to anyone since it had happened. "They didn't suffer, they had just celebrated their love for one another and they were together at the end, that's what counts. I try my best to keep their memory alive for Tosh."

Now it was Jack's turn to draw the young Welshman into his arms and comfort him, giving Ianto a soft kiss on the side of his head.

"The driver survived and during the investigation it turned out he was sexting on his mobile at the time of the accident. The resulting settlement from the hire company was in the millions, and that combined with the girls' life insurance policies is held in trust for Toshiko when she comes of age. She can be anything she wants."

"She'll be brilliant, no matter what." Jack had absolutely no doubt about that.

"One of the worst parts was that Emiko's family actually sounded relieved when I told them their daughter was dead and they flat-out refused to have anything to do with Toshiko; come to find out, when they'd learned their daughter was gay they'd cut her out of their lives completely." Ianto shrugged sadly. "Told me never to contact them again and to never tell Toshiko anything about them. As far as they are concerned she doesn't exist."

"What a bunch of arsehats!" Jack exclaimed indignantly, appalled by such a callous attitude toward their orphaned granddaughter. "Sounds like Tosh lucked out; they'll never know what they're missing."

"Thank you," Ianto said sincerely. "So, since I became the only hope she had for a family, I adopted Toshiko."

Jack pulled back and looked deeply into Ianto's eyes. "I am so very glad I met you, Ianto Jones."

 _One Year Later_

"Jack Harkness, I am not telling you again! Get your arse down to the car right now or we're going without you!" Ianto was at the end of his rope; he'd been trying to corral two… no, make that _three_ children and make sure they were properly dressed and ready to leave for the school. The pageant started in less than an hour and he did not want to be compared to Gwen Williams, who was always late for everything to do with her daughter's school programs.

"Just a minute, Yan, I'm…"

" _Now!"_ Ianto Jones roared so loudly that the dog yipped and dove under the sofa, leaving just his tail hanging out.

"Okay! Jeez!" Jack appeared at the top of the stairs. "I was just trying to get my tie right." He came clomping down the stairs in a perfect imitation of Owen on days when he didn't want to go to school. "Fix it for me?" he pleaded as he came to a stop in front of Ianto. "You always do it so nice."

Ianto was flabbergasted by the sight that met his eyes. _'Jack Harkness in a proper suit and tie; it's a bloody Christmas miracle!'_ All the frustration and anger disappeared immediately, leaving him with a sappy smile on his face as he pulled Jack into a tender kiss.

When they parted, Jack grinned happily. "Thank you, but what was that for?"

"I never thought I'd see you dressed so… so lovely… so perfectly lovely," Ianto reached up and quickly tied the sapphire blue silk tie into a perfect knot, straightening it under Jack's chin. "Love you so much, Cariad."

"Love you too, Yan." Jack grinned at his handsome husband. "Now come on, we're gonna be late!" and he scooted out of reach as Ianto's hand swung out to smack his bottom. "Nice try!"

Ianto watched as Jack trotted off into the kitchen, where he snatched up the keys to their SUV and then dashed out the door. "I don't know what I've done to deserve such a wonderful man but thank you very much." He glanced upwards as he offered his gratitude to the Universe before hurrying out himself.

Thanks to Jack's supernatural gift for breaking every posted speed limit without getting a single ticket from Cardiff's Heddlu, they arrived at the school with plenty of time left to escort the kids backstage before heading into the hall to claim the same front row seats they'd sat in the year before. This time, however, when Gwen came ploughing through the crowd to sit next to Jack she found herself stumbling to a halt and staring in shock and disgust as the men sat touching from shoulder to hip. Jack's arm was slung around Ianto's shoulders, his lips close to Ianto's ear as he whispered to him.

"Jack!?" The shock and uncertainty in her voice were palpable.

Having dumped Anwen in the care of her seventy-year-old parents without even asking if they wanted to or were even capable of watching their granddaughter, she'd just returned from America where she'd spent the last four months husband-hunting to no avail. She had no idea about Jack and Ianto.

"Hello, Gwen."

"What's going on?" she demanded, taking in the sight of Jack curled around Ianto and she looked at Ianto with cold calculating eyes. "Who's this, then?"

Always the gentleman, Ianto rose to his feet and held out his hand. "Ianto Jones, pleased to mee..."

"Ianto Harkness-Jones, actually," Jack interrupted proudly.

Gwen ignored Ianto's hand and stared at him like he'd just grown a third head. "Harkness-Jo…" she spluttered to a halt. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"We got married last month." Jack pulled Ianto down into his seat and put his arm back around his husband's shoulders, pulling him close.

"Don't be stupid, Jack," Gwen spat out. "You are not gay and this is not very funny!"

"Gwen, you have no idea who or what I am." Jack remained calm in the face of Gwen's growing ire.

"Just knock it off, Jack, and take your hands off that man," she demanded belligerently. "You're making an arse of yourself!"

Heads around them began turning in her direction, drawn to the ruckus in front of the stage.

Ianto lost his temper and rolled his eyes, although his tone remained civil. "Mrs Williams, perhaps you would like to find your seat? I believe the program is going to start in a few minutes."

"I'll sit down when I'm bloody good and ready!" The volume of Gwen's voice was nearly a roar.

Whispers started, several in particular reaching Gwen's ears: "Were you here last year? Remember the first years' fight on stage? The kid who punched the little boy next to her? That's the mam there."

"No wonder the child is such a nasty brat, she's got a real horror for a mother!"

"My Geordie works for Her Majesty's Prison Cardiff and that kid's just job security for him as far as I'm concerned," one mother confided to another, not caring if Gwen heard her or not.

Enraged by the attacks on her parenting skills, Gwen whirled on the parents. "Shut it, you lot! You only wish your horrid little monsters were as wonderful as my Anwen!"

More than one set of eyes were rolled and heads were shaken as the parents chose their seats. "Miserable cow!" one woman was clearly heard to say while another asked a rhetorical question of the group, "I wonder what that child of hers is going to do to mar the pageant this year."

Gwen turned her attention back to Jack and Ianto just in time to see them ending a kiss and her anger turned her face an ugly shade of red. "What did you do to him, you bloody poof?" she seethed, focusing her venomous attitude on Ianto and the loving smile Jack was giving him.

"What?" Ianto was shocked to hear such a derogatory term used against him.

"Gwen!" Jack was appalled to see such an ugly side to her.

"Well, come on, Jack! You never used to be gay! This _has_ to be all his fault!"

"First of all, his name is Ianto," Jack's tried to remain cordial but his eyes became dark and flinty, "and he's sitting right here. Second, I have been gay since I was ten years old. Ianto has done nothing more than to love me and to make my heart sing."

Ianto turned to his husband with delight. "Really, Cariad? That's beautiful."

Jack pulled Ianto closer and kissed him. "I mean every word, and I love you, always and forever."

Gwen made a gagging noise. "You people are disgu…!"

Suddenly the audience clearly heard loud shrieks of anger coming from backstage. This year, rather than drawing the curtain beforehand, the stage remained open so the beautiful backdrop of a snow-capped mountain, frost-covered trees and a cheerfully babbling brook could be seen. It was a donation from the Welsh National Opera and the school wanted the audience to appreciate it for as long as possible before they became distracted by their children performing.

"Is Mrs Williams here?" A teacher appeared from the wings. "Ah, yes, there you are. Would you please come backstage? We have a situation with your daughter."

Unwilling to leave the problem at hand, Gwen wavered between following the teacher and staying with Jack. She was determined to extract her former brother-in-law and hopefully, future husband from Ianto's clutches. ' _He's just a gold-digging fag who thinks he's found a free meal ticket.'_ She glared at Ianto who didn't even notice because at that moment, Jack was discretely nibbling on his earlobe; it was done as much to annoy Gwen as it was because he liked doing it.

"Mrs Williams, I'm waiting."

Gwen spun on her heel and gave the teacher a look that could kill. "What is your problem?!"

The woman did her best to swallow her own anger. "Your daughter does not have her costume for tonight's performance," she said calmly and slowly.

"Just give her something from back there. It won't matter." Gwen turned her back on the woman and stared at Jack.

"Mrs Williams, I am not through speaking to you." Now the teacher was beginning to lose her temper.

Gwen ground her teeth as she turned back around and repeated her question, "What the hell is your problem?!" Again, the audience stopped readying their cameras and talking to their neighbours; Gwen Cooper Williams was about to give them a great show.

The teacher adopted an icy tone. "Had you bothered to attend the pageant prep meetings with the other parents, you would know that each child in your daughter's year was given a specific costume to wear. You would have been given an instruction sheet which you would have used to easily create your child's costume."

"What…?" It was beginning to dawn on Gwen that she just _might_ have messed up. "Anwen was with her grandparents for the last few months; they should have taken care of this." She quickly deflected blame onto her elderly parents who were not there to defend themselves. Truth be told, Anwen hadn't bothered to give them any of the notes or papers sent home by the school.

Ignoring Gwen's excuse – as a teacher, she heard them by the dozen every week – the woman continued. "Because you failed to provide for your daughter, she is now throwing a temper tantrum and trying to ruin other student's costumes."

Gwen had a bad feeling where things were going. _'Damn it all to hell!_ _I'm not going to be able to rescue Jack from that perv tonight!'_

"If you do not come backstage, calm her down and get her to behave properly, you will be asked to remove her from tonight's activities." When Gwen didn't immediately do as she'd been asked, the teacher looked at her with great exasperation. "Well? I'm waiting… Are you coming, Mrs Williams?"

Flinging her oversized handbag over her shoulder so violently that it swung about and hit her in the back of the head, Gwen began stomping towards the hallway door as quickly as her three-inch-platform stripper-heels could carry her, her ankles wobbling dangerously all-the-while.

Jack and Ianto watched Gwen walk away, both appalled by her attitude towards them and their relationship. "I'm sorry about that, Yan; I never dreamed she felt like that towards gay men, or the LGBTQ community at large," Jack confided sadly.

Ianto squeezed his husband's hand and bumped their shoulders together in a comforting gesture. "You know, I don't want to be the one to say it, but I do believe her arse has gotten bigger."

Great bellows of laughter filled the hall, following a furious Gwen out into the hallway.

Working hard to stifle his own fit of giggles, Ianto shushed his husband as the lights dimmed and the show began.

When Anwen didn't appear with her classmates, the men knew that Gwen had been forced to take her home. This year Owen was a sprightly elf building toys in Santa's workshop, but it wasn't until the final act that Toshiko appeared. She had been given the monumental honour of a solo performance, never done before at her school, and as the music swelled and the curtain opened for the final time that night, Jack and Ianto's daughter began to dance to the opening overture of the Nutcracker ballet.

Being responsible parents, Jack and Ianto hadn't missed a single parent's meeting, and Ianto had outdone himself when designing her costume and as Toshiko pirouetted, dipped and swayed, floating across the stage, her delicate tutu caught the lights at every turn, creating a magical halo effect about her slender form.

When her performance was over, Toshiko bowed to a rapturous audience, who immediately surged to their feet, clapping and cheering for her, and when Owen appeared on stage, handed her a bouquet of pink and white roses, and quickly kissed her on the cheek, the applause became thunderous.

"She looks just like her mam, Cariad," Ianto whispered and Jack glanced at his husband to find he had tears streaming down his cheeks as he gazed proudly at his niece. "Emiko would be overjoyed to see her now."

Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto and hugged him closely. "Wanna keep up our holiday traditions and go to McDonalds?" he whispered, eliciting the desired tearful giggle.

"Yeah," he whispered back. "That would be perfectly lovely."

"You know, Ianto Harkness-Jones, I love you more than life itself." Jack confessed. "I cannot believe it's been an entire year since we met."

Ianto drew back a bit and kissed Jack soundly. "You are my life, my love and the very breath I take." He then burst into laughter. "Oh my God!" He laughed so hard he sagged out of Jack's arms and had to sit down.

"What's so funny? Has Gwen's arse come back?" Jack looked around with wildly exaggerated movements. "Hide me! You have to hide me, you're my husband now!"

It was a bit of a struggle but Ianto managed to contain himself long enough to say, "No, you're safe from an arse attack!" before going off laughing again, tears again running down his cheeks.

"Well, thank heavens for Christmas miracles, I'll tell you that for nothing." Jack's words, tone and facial expression were so absolutely Ianto's beloved grandmother that they stopped his laughter completely for a moment.

"Mam-gu?" he whispered, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"What?"

"Nothing." Ianto shook himself back to reality, "It's okay."

Jack canted his head and looked at his husband for a moment then, satisfied that he was all right, he asked, "So, what was so funny then?"

"Huh?" Ianto sniggered as he remembered what had set him off in the first place. "We sounded like love-struck damsels in a Dame Barbara Cartland book."

Jack grinned. "You read romance novels?" He was quite taken with the sudden image of Ianto curled up in a window seat on a rainy afternoon, his nose buried deep in a paperback book.

"No!" Ianto swatted Jack's arm. "Rhiannon was five years older than me, and as a teen, couldn't get enough of silly bodice rippers like those, and she delighted in reading me passages, tormenting me and following me all around, telling me all the details, cos she knew I couldn't stand hearing about them."

"Well then, you gorgeous and oh-so-manly husband of mine, shall we venture forth and collect our offspring?" Jack gave an exaggerated bow, sweeping low before extending his arm invitingly.

"Oh yes, my sweet darling man! Sweep me into your rugged arms and we shall bravely sally forth together into the world to reward our brilliant young performers." Ianto spoke in high-pitched silly voice that threatened to send them both into giggles once again.

Jack reached out in an attempt to pick Ianto up, getting his hands under one leg only to have the younger man give a shriek of embarrassed laughter and dance away with Jack giving chase.

Neither man noticed that they were the source of fond amusement for people still in the hall. Over the course of the past year, Jack and Ianto had become firm favourites with both the school's staff and the parents; they were always willing to generously volunteer their time, ideas and funding for anything to do with their children.

They arrived at the stage door just as Owen and Toshiko and the rest of their schoolmates came spilling out, eagerly searching for their families. Owen spotted the men right away and grabbed Tosh's hand, dragging her along with him as he rushed over, releasing her so he could fling his arms around Jack.

"Did you see me, Daddy?"

Jack beamed proudly. "I have never seen a better, more energetic or craftier elf in my life! I don't know how you do it! You are just a natural-born actor, I'm telling you!"

Owen puffed out his chest importantly, tickled pink that his dad thought he was so great.

Ianto didn't hesitate for a second; as soon as Tosh was close enough he scooped her up into his arms and spun around in circles while smothering her with loud smacking kisses. She did her best to shriek and protest while secretly loving every second of the attention.

"You were absolutely brilliant, Kitten, so graceful and elegant; you just floated around that stage like your feet weren't even touching the ground." Ianto swallowed past a lump in his throat. "Your mams would be so very proud of you, cos I know I am."

The little ballerina squirmed with delight. "You know what the best part was?"

"No, what?"

"All the girls loved my costume!" She looked at Ianto with enormous eyes. "They want you to make theirs next year."

Ianto shook his head. "Nay, I'm a one-princess tad; you get all my costumes, well, you and Owen, but you know what I mean."

"Good," she nodded wisely. "I think that's best, don't you? Don't want you running out of ideas before I'm finished dancing someday." She slid down to her feet and swapped places with Owen, both kids getting generous hugs and praise.

Finally, Jack clapped his hands. "Okay, last train to Micky D's is leaving! All aboard!"

"Yeah!" The kids cheered loudly as they grabbed one another's hands and raced towards the exit door, stopping there and waiting for their parents.

"So, my dearest, most darling spouse, shall we hither away yon and join our talented offspring before they steal the ruddy carriage and ride off into the sunset, leaving us in the dust?" Jack tried to be romantic and gallant, but judging by the amused twinkle in Ianto's eyes, he'd fallen just a wee bit short.

"Lead on, my sweet love…" Ianto cupped Jack's face and kissed him. "I will follow you anywhere you choose to go."

Wearing matching sappy grins, they wrapped an arm around the other and quickly joined their impatient children at the door, heading off into the crisp darkness, just one more love-filled family walking through the carpark in search of their chariot home.

End


End file.
